DRW50

I'd forgotten Milli and Ponzini were at AW. Ponzini would definitely qualify as a big success in his move over. I do wonder how that came across, especially early on. Just from reading the story details it seems a bit like there wasn't much of a background for Pat beyond setting up the story with Tony and their secret child. But Jacqueline is such a strong presence, and the audience clearly embraced her. A shame AW never tried the second time around.

Garrett's Holly seems so different in her return stint than what I've seen of her original work as Holly, but that may just be down to Holly later having a sheen over her neuroses. I know some have said Deerfield's Holly was even more neurotic. I remember the story Garrett told of how Deerfield would show up and watch her for a while after she took over the role. Deerfield supposedly did not want to leave GL and only did so because of her husband. I think Tim left with some woman named Pam. Another we will likely never see. That whole period seems like a big transition before the Dobsons lock in on core characters. Robin returning as Hope could have been interesting. I wonder if she was already typecast as a bitch by this point, thanks to GH. Or maybe she wouldn't have wanted a long East Coast stint anyway (her RH stint was short-term). Thanks for transcribing the interview. I've seen a few of theirs but haven't watched in full. I guess this could have worked if they had claimed what they seemed to be setting up at the end of the story - that he had had a complete breakdown due to being abused as a child. I'm not saying it was the best idea but it certainly wasn't any worse than anything else on GL at that point. Still, I think even if it hurt his career, he made the right decision for himself. He's still around, he looks healthy. And he has a great story people can remember him by. I'm glad I wasn't wrong about Wolf briefly playing Marian (sort of). I have forgotten so much yet that's what I remember...

@alwaysAMC Great mini-review as always. That Gilly story is...certainly one I could not forget... I imagine a number of viewers were shocked with the temporary recast. It was revealed in the soap magazines, as was the news about Frank Beaty's breakdown, I think. I think Wolf had some statements or an interview at the time but very little. I wish someone could interview him. He did a good job under extremely tough circumstances. For some reason I have a vague memory of him in the Marian getup but that's probably not right. I'm glad you have appreciated the material with Susan after a shaky start. I always enjoyed her, and she was the only love interest I liked Nick with.

That's a great point. I wish the writing could find those nuances.

Kim was cast before Don Stewart left GL.

Another I wonder about if they thought Joe Gallison would have more of an impact after his AW success. Was Agnes still involved with OLTL then?

So sad. https://deadline.com/2025/05/jill-sobule-dies-house-fire-66-1236383414/

Corey was the first. Then Ingo 5-6 months later. And then Vince was the last gasp.

Yes.

Yes. I don't know if Lenore was ever asked. Then it became a nun. Thanks. I didn't realize it was in 1987. That timeline doesn't make a lot of sense even if she would have had Ed to interact with. If they didn't ask her back in 1989 and she was willing, what a stupid error. The attempts at these feuds, or even the whole families tied together stuff like Maryanne Carruthers, never had any real impact because of how depleted the Bauers felt even by the mid '80s. And instead of expanding them, which would have been common sense, various producers were just too lazy, or too ashamed, and kept bringing on other families, or bringing in too many people at one time and not knowing how to write for them (the Spauldings in the McTavish era - as SOD said at the time, everyone in the family had the same personality).

I think they are a part of the same family, although Carla was never really scheming for the same reasons, and once her double life was exposed, she stopped.

Beyond what was listed, I think there are a few other moments early on - Nixon tested the waters of having a black female character in a larger supporting part on AW, helping to pave the way for Carla and Sadie on OLTL. Rachel/Ada is in some ways a template for Carla/Sadie, although Carla was much more tormented and her scheming was from preservation. Jordan Charney eventually arrived at OLTL after his AW success, although that was not duplicated. Doris Belack's success was, several times over.

Maybe he can use some of his connections to find whatever lost episodes are still out there.

Thanks. I'll have to check him out.

That's probably true, although as someone said earlier, not much is actually happening. The show just seems completely unsure of where to go or what to do, even as they five episodes a week to fill.

Never let it be said GH isn't realistic... Laura has been aiding and abetting "good" criminals for most of her life. She's probably just happy for the work, but she must be confused. Nothing about this character has ever made sense. They don't seem to know what they want with anything, like Tracy now working with Drew after fighting him tooth and nail. This is probably what they should have done all along, as I can believe she'd side with him over Sonny, but it's messy writing.

I didn't think they had any chemistry, but that's true for most couples on EE in recent years.

I think there have been claims that the show tried to get Lenore back after Roger's return, but it didn't happen. There's an SOD from 1986 that mentions the show's plans to bring back Hope, probably with a recast. Instead, we got the new Bauers. I assume once they decided to bring back Alan-Michael a year later as being in his late teens they gave up as they would have seen her as too old, or they thought it would be too confusing for new viewers, especially with no plans to bring Mike back. And then Alan-Michael went way down the list for characters the show cared about. I think someone here years ago claimed that Elvera was fired because Gail Kobe wanted to show that anyone could go. Which, if true, is a joke given that Kobe ran many of the cast off anyway, and also makes me wonder if she just had it in for the Bauers as it's not as if Hope was a central heroine at that point. I remember Rick's Alan-Michael in the Bauer kitchen at times but I never felt like they were important to him - he spent most of his time hanging around Spaulding Enterprises and whining about not getting enough respect. Robert Newman, IIRC, spoke of those scenes in later years and mentioned that Charita was not doing as well with her recovery as Bert was meant to be doing, which just impressed him even more at how she managed to play the scenes. That's a moving story, but it also speaks of how selfish the powers that be were at that time and how they clearly were ignoring signs they shouldn't have ignored. And then they didn't even bother to give her a proper sendoff. Sometimes I wonder how many viewers they lost for good over that farewell. Geoffrey Scott was a perfectly serviceable actor, but I don't think you can recast Billy. It's similar to Clint on OLTL. Jerry ver Dorn is one of my favorite soap actors of all time, but I never thought I was watching Clint when I saw him. There was something intrinsic to Jordan - his presence, his heart, his easy chemistry with those around him...even the way Scott tried to imitate Billy's accent grated on me. It didn't help that the show had had a slew of recasts in this period, none of them as strong as the previous portrayers - Scott was sort of a last straw.

I think they will have Frank there to the end, just to wind the show down rather than try to make improvements, although I hope I'm wrong. They had their chance and seemed to try last year and then gave up very quickly, so they may just be ready to hit the end button.

That probably did help.

Trawling through Youtube for pilots and I see this fascinating pilot that has been up around 13 years but hadn't been reuploaded over and over elsewhere that I could find. It is a sitcom adaptation of a play I'd never heard of called The Nerd. Robert Joy plays the titular role (he was, along with Mark Hamill and Rowan Atkinson, one of the actors who played the part onstage). The "normal" couple are played by two actors I always had a soft spot for - Harley Jane Kozak and John Dye (RIP). The intro alone probably tells you why it didn't get picked up. What makes this fascinating is that it was filmed in 1989 and sat on the shelf until March 1996. I'm not exactly sure NBC decided to burn this off almost a decade later - someone in the comments speculated that it is down to NBC airing a LaRouche infomercial that night and not wanting to air anything they actually cared about afterward. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nerd_(play)

There was, yes, allegedly. That's one of the reasons I say I may have been paranoid.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think she just wanted a break. When she returns there are long periods where it does feel like they are trying to push her out, but maybe I am just being paranoid.